A Rose By Any Other Name Would Not Be A Rose
by Stargate4003
Summary: Relena prayed for an answer to her problems in the political and romantic realm, and what she got was a talking rat who is more than meets the eye. NOT A ROMANCE FIC!
1. The Different Worlds

**A Rose By Any Other Name... Wouldn't Be A Rose...**

**Chapter 1. The Different Worlds**

It was a bright, beautiful morning on Sanc as the Queen sat in her back yard, her blue eyes reflecting heartbreak and sadness. The garden was large and full of plantlife; Relena used to sit near the cherry blossoms and smell their wonderful aroma as she drank tea, yet she chose to sit nearer to the house that day, in case someone should pay her visit. Her lawn chair was metal but painted white and elegant, to match her garden. She had her tea and sat in her pink dress with the matching straw hat, just sitting with a stony mask of professionalism that she often forced herself to wear with her blonde hair tied back with a pink bow. Despite her normal physical appearance, people could tell by looking that something was wrong.

The birds chirped, blissfuly unaware of the troubles of human life, and the clouds seemed to try and cheer her up by forming the shapes of unicorns and rabbits. Yet she refused to acknowledge them, only focused on her anger and directing her mind elsewhere. Anywhere that didn't involve _him_.

"My queen?"

Relena turned around and looked at her older friend, Lady Une. She was wearing glasses again and her brown hair was tied neatly up in a bun, yet her clothes were somewhat more relaxed than usual; a blue sundress. Her lips shined red under the bright morning, and her shoes made soft sounds on the concrete as she descended the small stairs from Peacecraft manner and sat down in the chair beside Relena's.

Une glanced down the stairwell beside them over to Relena's favorite trees, an eyebrow raised and a question blatant on her face. That was funny, Relena always though Une was better at hiding things than she.

"What is it, Lady?" Relena asked, holding her voice perfectly monotone.

"We have recieved news that the Federation plans another attack." Une said, her voice proper and educated. "The Gundams are still being repaired because of that energy storm and we have no ground troops that can take down the dolls if they are used."

The strange energy storm had been nothing like they'd ever seen before. The sky had turned purple while the clouds when black, and the thunder and lightning became products of plasmatic energy rather than electrical. It had destroyed many buildings and injured the Gundams greatly, and had first been considered a secret weapon from Oz. As research carried on, it had seemed to be just a simple natural phenomenon possibly brought on the pollution the fighting mecha suits left behind.

It wasn't anything important, yet Relena wondered if anything else had happened during it that the pilots hadn't told them about. It would certainly explain their odd behavior.

"What am I to do about it, Lady?" Relena said, setting her tea down on a glass table. "I can't do everything by myself, and I'm so overwhelmed right now. The damage is being repaired, my people keep demanding an end to this silly war, and my b... and my grades are falling drastically."

"I know, but you must think of something. Nothing else matters if you lose this war."

Relena sighed and rested her elbows against the table. She then placed her head in her hands, and Une caught a glimpse of what might have been lovesickness. Though she wasn't sure, and so didn't ask.

"Is there anyone who can repair the Gundams in time?"

"No. We've been looking, and there is so far no one. The damage is not only from an unidentifiable source but it's too much for mere humans to repair." Lady Une watched Relena as she stared ahead, her eyes focusing on some birds playing in her fountain. Lady cleared her throat, brining Relena back to attention. "However, if somebody could take the place of fighting or create some new quicker way to repair, then all would be settled and you wouldn't have to worry about it."

"True."

Relena sighed again and stood up. She walked down more stairs and went to her fountain, where the birds flew away. Lady Une followed suit. Relena stared at her reflection in the water, watching it distort as the ripples touched it. It replaced her proportions for something that resembled a fun house mirror, and Relena couldn't help but wonder if that's what he saw everytime he looked at her.

"He thinks I'm a twisted version of something that's beautiful," Relena said, speaking her thoughts.

Lady Une seemed taken aback by Relena's sudden openness, but quickly regained her composure and stern, teacher-like manner. Relena wished she would be more of a friend today, but it looked as though that wouldn't happen.

"Yuy said that, I assume." She said, standing beside Relena.

"No, but he thought it."

Lady Une looked at the water, and gave a small smile. Was it intentionally comforting?

"Perhaps what he just saw was a reflection of himself." Relena started to comment, but Une cut her off with an explanation. "Inside of you he sees emotions, he feels emotions, and these things are bad to him; he was trained to feel no such things and to be a perfect soldier, not to care."

Relena nodded, understanding and liking the idea. Maybe it wasn't something wrong with her, but him. Yes, that was it. She could live with that. But the spark in her eyes betrayed her, still showing the deep, dark depression that had been overwhelming her since the previous night. Lady Une took note of this.

"Keep trying, Lady. We must bring the Gundams back, or else Sanc is in trouble."

Une saluted and turned to leave, walking up the steps with soft, scraping sounds. Relena continued to stare at her reflection until she heard the door open and shut. Then she looked away. Her reflection used to be beautiful to her; young and refreshing, resembling her mother with hints of her father. She used to stare at herself and believe that she was the most beautiful thing in the world, though not quite as obsessively as Dorothy Catalonia. Yet now, she saw something hideous and unlovable.

Emotions, who was she trying to fool? Yuy denied her not because of emotions or that she was a mirror of what was inside of him. No, he let her go because he hated her. She was ugly, whiny, and too spoiled. She knew these things, for Quatre's journal was easy to locate and Duo's mouth wasn't as reserved as the others. To Yuy, she was nothing more than a product of a rich family who never withheld anything from her. She wasn't beautiful.

A tear fell from her eye, shattering the stony mask. Relena hid her face behind her hands and let her tears gather, like the fountain water. She wasn't a stern queen with a plan for peace, she was a lonely, sad queen who had a dragon but not a knight. She hated herself, the way she felt, and everything that had happened. If she had died when she was a child, things would have been perfect. She would be in heaven now instead of hell.

Lady Une closed the curtains over the window and frowned.

In another dimension far away from Relena's, it wasn't near as beautiful as a day. The skies were black with nothingness, and the shadows swallowed metal streets devoid of any organic matter whatsoever. There were no large gardens or people, no depressed queens who thought themselves ugly, but rather miles and miles of empty, lifeless drones, all equipped for war. The only change in the scenary was the underground, where some plants grew in secret and their animal masters kept them safe from the war machines, defying the conqueror of the planet's wishes.

They, too, had suffered an energy storm.

A large brown ape stood in the center of a garden of flowers, meshed just slightly with metallica entity. The ape stood tall and had disproportionately huge hands, with metal circuitry and signs every here and there. Along his arms were gold platings with blue wires that went onto his collar bone and across the ribcage, with some across his feet like a Japanese geta. Though he looked like an ape, this creature gave very human emotions, and right now his face was twisted in frustration.

His garden was growing wonderfully, especially with the "goo"--as they called it--that made the trees prosper so, yet not even Botanica could fix the obvious problem with them: they were still underground. He had promised the Matrix he'd save the planet, he had sworn to the Oracle to do so, but it seemed impossible to do so. Everytime he got close to succeeding, something would go wrong. Something would find their base, smash the flowers, or set them back by empowering the evil overlord Megatron.

This time, it was an energy surge that had almost kill the flowers and Botanica.

Optimus Primal--the ape--felt useless, and the near-death experience of his Maximal friend brought back many old feelings and memories; ones of which he had thought had been erased. Yet he brooded on them, feeling them seep into his Spark and blacken his aura.

The soft footprints behind Primal alerted him of another presence, though he could have normally sensed one. He turned, a little unsure of who it might be, and relaxed when saw the yellow fur of his second-in-command.

"Hey, Big Bot." The cat said, his long--too long--legs moving him to beside his friend.

Cheetor looked more organic than Primal in some ways, but less in others--it had always fascinated Primal about how equal the Maximals were balanced. Cheetor's body looked like a toy that was put together, having different sections standing out above others. He had golden plates on his shoulders, stomach, and legs that showed his technological side, and then had the yellow fur with purple spots that displayed his organic matter clearly. If it wasn't for the frictionless layer over him, he might had been more beast than 'bot.

To match his cat-like appearance, Cheetor was a fiesty comrade that was prone to making impulsive decisions and following his instincts. He was over-protective, over-caring, and always managed to pick a fight, but had grown much more mature during these past few days. They all did.

"How's Botanica?" Primal asked, his emotions flowing into his voice.

Cheetor looked down at the plants. One broke off and hit the ground, while another stood erect and fresh. "About as good as these things: sometimes good, sometimes bad."

Primal nodded. "And Rattrap?"

Cheetor gave him a puzzled look, his brain acting slower than his feet that day.

"Rattrap wasn't hurt."

"Not physically, no."

It dawned on Cheetor what he meant, and the cat gave Primal a look of confusion. Primal smiled to himself, remembering that the relationship was still a secret--or so the couple thought. He walked over to another plant and began to play with it. This plant was oddly shaped and felt weird under his touch. It almost felt... real.

"Well, how are you?" Cheetor asked, following his commander. Still confused about the earlier comment.

Primal sighed and closed his eyes, fighting back a surge of emotions. He let the flower go and watched it fall off the techno-organic trees, floating to the ground like a feather.

"Not too good, Cheetor. Not too good."

"Well, we found a piece of debris from the storm. It's charged with electricity and emitting a..." Cheetor looked at Optimus's face, and frowned. He could see his bosses eyes absently staring at the strange green plant and the way his mouth quivered, as though he was fighting back tears. Cheetor had never seen his boss cry, never, and it was odd to find him in this state. Very odd. "Big Bot, it has a spark."

Optimus looked up at Cheetor and wrinkled his brow. The old emotions were wiped off his face so fast, it deepened the worry in Cheetor's mind. Primal wasn't just crying, but hiding it as well.

"It's... a transformer?" He asked.

"Yeah. Rattrap's messing with it now, trying to find out something about it. So far nothing, but he says he's pretty close."

"Good. What is this?"

Optimus picked up the odd flower and handed it to Cheetor, who felt it's silky stem. The cat thought it over a bit, smelling something sweet and familiar entering the air around the flower, like the aura of perfume Botanica often had about her.

"It looks like a flower." He said.

Optimus nodded and took it back, waving Cheetor off. Finding nothing else to say, Cheetor complied, giving a last glance to his boss.

_I hope you're okay, Big Bot._


	2. Megatron and God

_Sorry that it's so simple in explanation. My house is loud today and I can't think, but I wanted to get the ideas out. I will rewrite later! Maybe..._

****

****

**Chapter 2,**** Megatron and "God"**

The queen's bedroom was huge compared to most, but it felt just as much like a trap as any. The white walls were decorated with paintings and photographs her family long since passed, as the wood floors upheld elegant furnature and fancy rugs. A pink drape usually hung over thel arge window, yet Relena had pulled it aside to watch the rain. The desk in front of the window held up Relena's slumped form, as she cried on a blank piece of paper. The shadows of the rain making crooked stripes down her face and hair, and in her right hand she clutched a pencil.

Other than the rise and fall of her chest, she made no movements.

Since that morning, she had not been inside, watching the day go by passively as she went through the automatic routines of school and politics. She made lousy grades that showed her stress on the large red letter she got, her people begged her to ally, retreat, or do _something_, and her pilots all sent her e-mails demanding their Gundams be repaired before Oz came. Her political friends all backed away from her, leaving everything up to her, and Yuy only gave her icy glares from beneath his chocolate bangs.

Relena had wanted to scream, had wanted to jump up and scold them. How dare they leave everything up to her, a mere teenager who couldn't hold her life together, let alone a planet. She didn't want the universe on her shoulders, she already had the world, and it wasn't her choice; she was a bad queen. But the words could not find their way past her trained, royal lips. She just remained silent, feeling the sting of each persons breath as they poured their troubles onto her. The only thoughts she even permitted was the consideration of consulting a pilot, preferrably not Yuy.

There was a ringing sound and it took Relena a while to register what it was. She looked at the phone near her bed, screaming for her to pick it up, yet as her eyes wandered she saw her mirror and her reflection. She sat up and wiped her eyes, seeing in her bedroom mirror a red, stained face. It reminded her of the fountain, and she looked away, unable to consider herself anything more than ugly. She then stood up and went over to the phone, pulling it off the reciever anxiously wrapping her thin fingers in the cord.

"Hello?" She asked, wearily.

On the other end there was only static. She waited a while but no voice came, making her wonder if they were cut off because of the storm. She frowned and set the phone on the base. She then sat on the bed, the velvet covers moving under her weight. The phone rang again, as she suspected it would.

"Can I help you?" Relena asked.

There was more static, and Relena was about to slam it down when a deep and elegant voice spoke up, making Relena rush to listen.

"No, but I can help you." The voice said, it's tone thrilled.

Relena hestitated to speak, uncurling and recurling her finger. After a moment's consideration, she decided it must be a duke or count, and so responded.

"Wh-Who are you?"

The voice chuckled, having a sinister appeal.

"I am your genie." It said. "I heard your cries and saw your tears, and here I am to deliver. Your wish is my command and all that."

Relena shot a glance around her room, searching for hidden cameras and briefly wondering if she was insane. She saw no lights, heard no robotics, and came to the conclusion that either she was insane or having hallucinations brought on by stress.

"Listen," Relena said, looking about again, just in case. "I don't know who you are, but if you call here again I will have you traced and arrested!"

The voice didn't chuckle this time, but let out a roar of laughter. Relena moved the phone away from her ear but it still rung through her head, starting a headache. She realized that the voice was very real, and not part of her imagination. After it stopped, Relena continued her speech, feeling scared.

"I don't enjoy being harrassed right now, I have a lot of problems..."

"That's why I'm here, child." The voice said, interrupting. "Just ask of me _anything_. Go on, give it a try."

Relena considered hanging up again, but she felt something flare up inside of her. She remembered Duo half-heartedly joking about God calling people and him explaining how God's voice would sound over the phone. This man certainly sounded like God, with his deep accented voice and elaborate pronunciation tingling through her body, and she had never doubted a God existed. Though it was hard for her to grasp. Why would God be calling her? If she couldn't do anything for herself, there was nothing she could offer to _God_.

Of course, that would explain how he knew she was crying, seeing as how there were no cameras.

Relena swallowed her spittle, feeling it clump in her throat. A little test wouldn't hurt.

"Alright then, if you're really a g... a genie, then I want..." She thought about it for awhile, trying to think of something that wouldn't be common. She looked about her room, her eyes stopping on a photo of Heero Yuy she had hid in her desk. The corner stuck out under the edge of the wood, and only his scruffy hair and contemplative eyes could be seen. "I want Heero Yuy to love me." As an afterthought. "Again."

The voice chuckled again, sounding lighter this time around.

"Very well. I'll be calling you later."

With that, the voice was gone, leaving only a blaring horn in her ear that announced the person had hung up. She set the phone down on the reciever, and smirked. There was no way Heero Yuy would love her, he thought she was just...

Brrrring.

Relena shot a glance at her phone, and answered it, ready for somebody to tell her it was a belated April Fool's joke or something. But the voice that resounded was certainly not the one she heard earlier, but rather that of the man of her dreams.

"Relena?" Heero asked, his voice fuzzy. "I need to talk to you."

No! That wasn't God, it was a prankster. Heero didn't love her, he never did. She should just ask him and get it over with, prove to herself, once and for all, that God did _not_ call her on her phone!

"Do you love me?" She asked, finding no way around the bluntness.

Yuy inhaled a sharp breath, preparing for something. Relena held onto the phone hard enough her knuckles were white, as she bit her lip and silently wished his answer to be no. Anything to make God disappear.

"Yes." Came the reply.

Relena screamed and slammed the phone down, backing away from it and making a cross in the air. She found the bedroom wall and slumped to the floor, wrapping her arms around her legs and biting her knees, watching the phone.

It didn't happen. It didn't happen. It could not have happened. It was just a coincidence, I mean, the energy storm messed with the pilots, simple as that. It was only a coincidence. Yes, that was it.

No... it wasn't.

BRRRIIING.

Relena covered her ears, then decided to accept that it had, in fact, happened. She stood up and went over the phone, wanting to scream, shout, commit herself to the institute, but simply answered it.

"Are you God?" She asked.

The voice seemed to smile at her--it certainly _felt_ that way--but it didn't laugh or answer her question, leaving it open for discussion.

"What do you _really_ want?" It asked.

"I want an answer to my problem," she said, bracing herself. "I want something to help me with my war, to help me win. If I don't have to think about the war, I can do my school work, and Yuy's already been settled... thanks for that, by the way."

The voice laughed.

"I knew you'd ask. Just step back from the bed."

The voice hang up again and Relena stepped away from the bed. Light filled the room as a piercing noise reflected off the walls, the bed exploding in a mess of springs, feathers, and velvet scraps. Relena dropped the phone, and pressed herself against the wall farthest from the bed. She began screaming shortly after.

Rattrap stared at the machine, sizing it up before plugging himself in. It was barely the size of a car and painted white with stipes, but it looked like a giant, metal crate. The cracks in the side meshed together to paint a picture of some ladies face, and they started to glow blue as Rattrap searched the database via his tail.

In beast form, Rattrap was, obviously, a rat. He was small, though as large as a normal--gigantic--housecat, and looked mostly like a real creature. He had patches of fur missing every now and then revealing blue and red circuits, his feet were completely robotic, and on his back was a carrying pack, but other than that he was as ratty as rats could come. He still considered himself the best animal.

His tail twisted and turned as it downloaded information into his mind, the information floating absently in his eyes, like miniature computer screens. It was mostly codes made of strange symbols, but a few words every now and then would be understandable. Energon and Optimus being a few. Yet his mind wasn't on decoding, it was concentrating mostly on the injured friend in the room next door.

Botanica and he had a secret relationship. They were embarrassed about it themselves, considering just forgetting the whole thing, yet neither one could make themselves just forget. A kiss had been shared, a few side glances when nobody was looking, and even a hug or two, yet it felt like much more. Rattrap imagined it to be as important as Blackarachnia's and Silverbolt's relationship: a true thing that would always follow them. He never asked Botanica about how she felt, but her actions suggested she thought the same.

He sighed as he thought about the storm--that damned disasterous storm--and the injuries it made. They had all felt it, all being at least partially organic, yet she had recieved most of the shock, her being connected to the plants and all. She was so weak and pale, unable to move or even speak correctly, and it made Rattrap mad. No, it made him _furious_--

"Big bot doesn't look too well."

Rattrap's tail snapped free of the computer as he let out a cry of surprise, having not noticed Cheetor enter. Cheetor sat near the door with a solemn expression, frowning as his eyes examined the floor and his mind wandered. Rattrap muttered under his breath and plugged himself back in, starting the process all over again.

"What are ya tryin' t'do, give me a heart attack?" He snapped.

"You can't have one," Cheetor pointed out.

Rattrap gave him a glare than focused on the code again, watching the familiar words float by in the river of jibberish. Cheetor sighed and slid down into a laying position, his eyes finally moving to look at Rattrap, who momentarily stopped the information flow to look back.

"What?" He asked, sounding more angry than he meant to.

"It's just... Optimus was crying." He said.

Rattrap's expression shifted into a comforting one, and he shook his head.

"We're all stressed out right now, Cheetor, ain't we?"

"Yeah."

Rattrap continued searching and found a word that amazed, confused, and intrigued him. He saw his name.

"Hey! I'm in here!" He said, lacing his tone with glee to hide his true feelings. "There's my name. I must be famous."

Cheetor gave Rattrap a curious glance and walked over to him, covering Rattrap in a full shadow. He looked at the machine, tilting his head to examine every inch of it, before turning his attention back to Rattrap.

"What else does it say?" He asked.

Rattrap sifted through the unreadable code until he found more words, blurting them out one by one for Cheetor to help sort.

"Phone, help, war..." He started. "Queen, connection, energon sensors... What's this?"

A giant blue screen erased the code, displaying four large letters that Rattrap couldn't read. The letters melted and then swirled, becomming an animated blue vortex. It then formed the letters again, only backwards, becomming "SANC". Rattrap furrowed his brow. He searched for more information, yet found that there was nothing else to see, so he unplugged himself.

"What'd you see?" Cheetor asked, his former worries replaced with wonder.

Rattrap shrugged.

"I dunno."

Cheetor, finding nothing else to do, started to leave. Rattrap searching his memory database for the code again and found it, watching the words melt and then reform multiple times. The words would not click in his mind, yet he knew they were supposed to. Somehow, he was supposed to figure out what they all meant.

He was still decoding the message when Relena asked for help, and didn't notice when the machine behind him came alive, the head moving into an upright position and opening its ugly, Megatron-ish mouth. Only when it dripped wet gel on him did he realize something was wrong.

Rattrap shut off the computer in time to see the face of Megatron as it swallowed him whole, dropping him through a wet ride of what could have been compared to a washing machine cycle. He came out in a flash of light, landing on and bursting through something soft. Somebody was screaming in the background.

The head sat back down with a smile.


End file.
